1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus that records an image with a recording head on both sides of a recording medium conveyed by a transport unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a recording apparatus such as an inkjet printer that records an image on both sides of a recording medium, an image is recorded on the front side of the recording medium, and the recording medium is discharged once to the outside of the apparatus. Then, the recording medium is again sent to the recording head through a dedicated path for inverting the front side and the back side of the recording medium, and an image is recorded on the back side of the recording medium. In such a recording apparatus, there has been the problem that the amount of time from when image recording on the front side of the recording medium ends to until image recording on the back side of the recording medium begins becomes long, and the printing speed of double-sided printing becomes slow.
As a configuration that addresses this problem, a configuration has been proposed where two drums are disposed in an image recording unit, the recording medium is snaked between the two drums, the front side of the recording medium is made to face outward at the drum at the upstream side of the transport direction, the recording medium is adhered to the drum, and image recording is conducted on the front side of the recording medium. Then, the back side of the recording medium is made to face outward at the drum at the downstream side of the transport direction, the recording medium is adhered to the drum, and image recording is conducted on the back side of the recording medium (e.g., see JP-A- 2002- 1938).
However, with this configuration, there has been the problem that the recording apparatus becomes large as a result of disposing the two drums. There has also been the problem that the drum diameters become large in order to adhere recording media that are difficult to curve, such as thick paper, and the recording apparatus becomes even larger. Moreover, there has also been the problem that the amount of transport time when an image is recorded on only one side of the recording medium becomes long as a result of continually snaking the recording medium, and the printing speed of a single-sided print becomes slow.